§ Mr. Lawrenceasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what would be the cost to Staffordshire ratepayers over the next three years of providing free school milk to all children aged 7–11 years; and if he will show how that cost is arrived at.
§ Miss Margaret JacksonThere would be no cost to ratepayers in the financial year 1978–79 for providing free school milk for 7–11 year olds. LEAs would be fully reimbursed by direct Exchequer grant for the additional expenditure, net of the EEC subsidy of about 4½p per pint. From 1979–80 onwards, estimated net expenditure by LEAs generally on this additional free milk will attract Exchequer support through the rate support370W grant at whatever rate of grant is decided by the Government for the financial year in question. Since rate support grant is a block grant, given in aid of local authority expenditure as a whole, and distributed according to an assessment of individual authorities' needs and resources, it is not possible for me to say for a particular authority that would be the net cost to the ratepayers of additional expenditure on a particular service.
An estimate of the total cost to public funds of providing free school milk to junior pupils in Staffordshire can be made by taking the authority's figure of 81,991 junior children on roll in January 1978 and reducing it by some 19 per cent. to 66,400 to allow for absentees and children not wishing to take milk. Assuming that the school year consists of 192.5 days, that the authority will purchase milk at a price about 5 per cent. below the current maximum retail price that overheads will increase the cost by about 4 per cent. and that the EEC subsidy remains at approximately 4½p per pint, the result is a total figure of £335,000 for the annual cost to central and local government, net of the EEC subsidy.